In the last few hours since we last checked in on the race in TN-09 (where the primary is tomorrow):
* Nikki Tinker was declared Worst Person in the World by Keith Olbermann. (If anyone can recall any other Democrat receiving this, um, honor, please let us know in the comments!)
* Nikki Tinker, or at least her ad, was condemned by EMILY’s List, who had previously endorsed her.
EMILY’s List president Ellen Malcolm issued a statement Wednesday evening condemning Tinker’s most recent ad. The group, which endorses Democratic women who favor abortion rights, has been Tinker’s most prominent backer.
“We were shocked to see the recent ads run by the Nikki Tinker for Congress campaign. We believe the ads are offensive and divisive,”
(The ad has been scrubbed from YouTube by the Tinker campaign; unfortunately, the embed below no longer works.)
* Steve Cohen forcibly removed a cameraman from his house who had barged in uninvited to Cohen’s hastily-called news conference at Cohen’s house to address the religion-baiting ad… and the cameraman is allegedly pressing ‘assault’ charges. (Video from the local Memphis Fox affiliate is available here: http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/my… The cameraman is an Armenian-American activist and documentary filmmaker who has been stalking Cohen all week; he’s not officially affiliated with the Tinker camp, but Armenian groups have given more than $30K to the Tinker campaign because of Cohen’s opposition to the bill to call the World War I-era slaughter of Armenians genocide (and thus infuriate Turkey).
Small legalistic note: there’s a big difference between some sorehead pressing charges, and the county DA actually following through on them (which I guess we’ll find out about that tomorrow). The video shows Cohen escorting the guy out the door with hand firmly on his arm and giving him a shove out the door for good measure; since the cameraman was essentially trespassing, this isn’t likely to amount to anything.
Also (h/t to BruinKid): the documentarian, Peter Musurlian, was previously a GOP operative, working as the district director for Carlos Moorhead, who until 1996 represented the Pasadena-area district now represented by Adam Schiff.
* UPDATE (Thursday morning): Barack Obama issued a statement condemning the ad (although not Tinker by name).
“These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee,” Obama said in a statement. “It’s time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country.”
I’m Armenian-American, and I think Tinker has gone off the deep-end and am HEAVILY rooting for Cohen to win.
That cameraman looks to have crossed completely crossed the line and Cohen’s opponents have completely lost it.
But that’s not a reason to put the word genocide in quotation marks. What happened in 1915 was a genocide that many countries in the world – and more than a dozen of American states – have recognized as such. And this is also an issue in the presidential campaign and most Armenian groups are backing OBAMA.
The argument many used against the recognition bill in the fall was that it would infuriate Turkey and thus Congress shouldn’t do it. Even if you feel that way, that argument has nothing to do with holding that the 1915 events were not a genocide and therefore I don’t see why you as a private citizen would have to put the word in quotation marks.
If I remember correctly, she told an Atheist who was testifying before the Illinois Senate was harming children because of his beliefs.
I got it from raatz at DailyKos. I just figured it was imperative the SSP crowd knew about the guy’s history. I’m writing all this up for the Bruin Dems blog right now too.
Interesting side note: between Moorhead and Schiff, the Congressman who represented that district was James Rogan, who was one of the 13 House managers in the Clinton impeachment trial. And that job basically cost him his House seat in 2000, and Schiff’s held it ever since.
They backed off fro Tinker way too late for this to have any meaning. Between this and their kamikaze dive for Hillary, they have done themselves a lot of damage this year.
Olberman gave the “award” on March 31, 2008 to PA Governor Ed Rendell for praising Fox News’s primary coverage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
So that’s at least one.
I personally hope that Niki Tinker looses big time. We complain when we are the victims of negative attacks, but when we do it ourselves, we immediately ignore that fact. Tinker has shown a disregard for the party and the state and district that she wants to represent. She is nothing more than a greedy politician who seeks power for herself on behalf of others. Rep. Cohen is a great man who fits the district extremely well. His politics are in line with his constituents and he sticks to his word. Tinker must loose otherwise I would encourage Cohen to run as an Independent!
I’d go out on a limb and say that this is the most important primary race for us this cycle (close second was Donna Edwards’ awesome victory in MD). Tinker has run an absolutely trashy campaign from start to finish, and would have an abysmal DLC-Ford Jr.-Blue Dog voting record in Congress.
Steve Cohen is a solid progressive, a VAST improvement over Ford and is needed in Congress. He’s got to win!
I’d go out on a limb and say that this is the most important primary race for us this cycle (close second was Donna Edwards’ awesome victory in MD). Tinker has run an absolutely trashy campaign from start to finish, and would have an abysmal DLC-Ford Jr.-Blue Dog voting record in Congress.
Steve Cohen is a solid progressive, a VAST improvement over Ford and is needed in Congress. He’s got to win!
why are y’all saying this fella was harassing him? if anything cohen looked like an absolute lunatic and did a big amateur-hour type meltdown in front of live rolling cameras – the guy was just standing there and wanted to ask him a few questions according to the news story
not exactly my idea of what a Congressman should be or conduct him/herself
the better question is why is cohen so up in arms over this man and this genocide thing?
for christ’s sake cohen just had that slavery bill pass which was pretty offensive style pandering if you ask me – right before the primary and all – how come nobody is accusing him of dirty tactics?
come on it’s politics y’all let’s all take a big breadth
but passing that slavery bill right before his own election – that is really obvious that it is pandering